Monomoy Lighthouse to get repairs, thanks to stimulus

The Department of Interior is using $1.5 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to repair historic Monomoy Light, the keeper’s house and the oil storage shed.

Doreen Leggett

For several years people calling Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge have heard a taped message about trips out to the lighthouse on South Monomoy.

“Due to vandalism and much needed repair, Friends of Monomoy will not be conducting overnights on Monomoy Light. Thank you,” it says.

But refuge staff may have to tape a new message soon.

The Department of Interior is using $1.5 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, or stimulus money, to repair the beacon, the 1,600-square-foot keeper’s house and the associated oil storage shed perched at the tip of the island. After the design and renovations are through, perhaps as early as next summer, people will once again be able to enjoy the 1849 landmark that is on the National Register of Historic Places.

“We do anticipate it will be used in some way by the public,” said Libby Herland, who manages the refuge as well as seven others in Eastern Massachusetts. She said organized day trips or overnights could be taken to the lighthouse by a concessionaire, friends group or another nonprofit.

The lighthouse was a popular spot for many who enjoyed the view from the top and the solitude and natural beauty of the remote setting. Cape Cod Museum of Natural History used to take folks out to the cast iron lighthouse and associated keeper’s house as did the Massachusetts Audubon Society before it sold the four-acre parcel to the refuge in 1977.

Dana Eldridge, who worked for Fish and Wildlife in his younger days, remembers taking author Rachel Carson, famous for “Silent Spring,” and nature writer Edwin Teale out to the lighthouse sometime in the 1950s.

“For me it was a wonderful experience,” he says.

Eldridge remembers it clearly because he “revered” Carson and because he had to bang the window a certain way to get it to pop open. (They couldn’t get in the door.) And they all climbed through the window.

They took the circular stairs 40 feet up and could see all the way to Nantucket, quite a pretty view.

His memories go back further than that moment. When the island was still attached to the coast, and for some time afterward, Eldridge’s parents had a camp on Monomoy.

He remembers going out to the lighthouse and seeing bullet holes in the side. During World War II and before “fledgling, hotshot” pilots would take aim at the empty lighthouse – which was decommissioned in 1923 – while practicing on the bombing range in the middle of the island.

Eldridge was at the lighthouse, which, since vehicles were banned decades ago, is an arduous but stunning three-quarters of a mile walk through sand and marsh, last year.

He is pleased that it’s going to be repaired and that visitors will once again be able to enjoy it.

“That would be great,” Eldridge said. “I don’t want to be telling people what it’s like.”

Herland said the last time the lighthouse – which took the place of an earlier one built in 1823 – was extensively renovated was in 1988.

The lighthouse has no heat but the Wildlife Service is looking into installing some kind of electrical source, perhaps a wind turbine or solar panels.

“What we appreciate about getting the stimulus funding is we would have had to repair this anyway. We can’t let it just fall to the ground,” she said of the historic structure.